I don’t have an interview today. Not for lack of trying, I just didn’t get any back yet. I will answer questions you leave in the comments. Ask me things about stuff. As long as I wouldn’t mind my mom reading it I will answer.

1)What do you like to be called?

Treb and Tagg call me mom. I am not sure when they stopped calling me mama. It just really hit me yesterday that they won’t ever call Mama again. I like being Mom. You know unless someone is hurt, hungry, or misbehaving. Parenting is hard.

My mother calls me Pumpkin. I must have been orange and round as a baby.

My husband calls me … wait that’s private.

2)Is creating your day job or night fling?

I write whenever. My paid job customer service and running social media for an iPhone app. It’s kind of creative.

3)In six or fewer sentences describe your usual routine?

If wake up thinking about my story; I write for a little bit, then get up and do whatever needs adulting/parenting at the moment.

More adulting/parenting sprinkled with procrastination, writing, texting and social media, caffeine, housework, and a tiny bit of paid work.

As Mom, you are expected to clean, feed people, and in general be available for emotional stability at least until bedtime. Then I turn into a dragon.

Some nights, I run away to Starbucks around 7:30 to write and stay until closing. If not I fire up WoW or stare at Scrivener until 11:30.

4)Where do you like to do your creating? Coffee shop, library, your sofa?

I kind of move around. We have done some remodeling and I love my desk. but Tagg uses it during the day. It can take 30 min to clear off all the Lego (he just informed me adding an s is incorrect) and drawings.

I get a lot of writing done in bed, walking the kids to school, and stuck at railroad crossings in the car. I have to get out of the house when I have deadlines. Housework suddenly becomes a thing. During the school year, I go to the library a few times a week. I am trying to limit my Starbucks trips to once a week.

5)What does your workspace look like?

This is my desktop. We just did a big remodel and I designed and built this. Right now there is an empty box of cookies, markers, toys, and Tagg’s drawings all over it. He probably drank my Diet Pepsi too.

6)Do you prefer your first draft to be hand-written or digital?

Digital. My hand cannot keep up with my brain. Autocomplete is invaluable for the hard to spell names that I make up. I have some visual processing issues and a page full of chicken scratch is anxiety producing.

I do most of my initial creation on my iPhone. I wrote my entire 180K word draft on my iPhone in 5-10 minute bursts around housework and childcare. Don’t judge.

7) Do you have any writing rituals? Does the house have to be clean? Meditation?

If I have an idea that will take a while to work out, I check to make sure the kids don’t need anything. Nothing breaks your flow like having to stop to cook. Or clean up someone’s attempt to be independent. So it just makes sense to make sure everyone is happy first. Otherwise,I find a quiet corner to stand or pace and tap out a few paragraphs on the phone.

8)Tea or coffee? (or other artsy drink)

Caffeine. I am not picky about what form it comes in but I’d better get that 400mg by noon or I may need blood sacrifices. Sometimes I drink water. There might have a few wine induced scenes. At night I try to drink tea since waking up at 3 am wired makes adulting/parenting difficult.

9)Is procrastination a thing? What do you find yourself doing when it is?

Can you believe it? Sometimes I feel guilty about not cleaning. I work on my blog usually. I text and chat on Twitter. Tackle hug my kids. Cinnamon rolls, from scratch.

10)In fantasy writing, is world building a pain or a pleasure?

Depends. I don’t just sit down to world build. I let the narrative build the world as the characters move through the story. That part is easy. The pain is when I have to go in and revise to fix how magic works or work out some political aspect. The next person who says writing fantasy is easy because **MAGIC** or “you just make up a country”, might get punched.

11)What was the last thing you read? Did you enjoy it?

This is embarrassing. I haven’t finished anything in a long time. The last thing I finished was Pick Me (Kindle Single)* by Kalisha Buckhanon. I enjoyed it a lot. It was set in Chicago, about an interracial couple and the pressure to start a family. I could relate to that.